“A club with the financial capacity like Manchester City can sign any player in the world and it’s no surprise they focus on players from Barcelona,” defender Gerard Pique said ahead of the Champions League meeting between the two sides at the Nou Camp on Wednesday evening. City have spoken to Neymar’s representatives in the past, before he joined Barcelona, with the Brazilian about to renew his contract later this week – a new five-year deal which, temporarily at least given contract negotiations are set to take place with Messi, will make him the club’s highest-paid player. Luis Suarez has also been courted, again before he moved to Barca.

Messi is preparing to face Manchester City in the Champions League on WednesdayCredit:
AP

But it is Messi who remains the ‘Holy Grail’ - and if not Messi then City finding the ‘next Messi’ with the club hunting across the world and developing its academy to find him.

At City the arrival of Pep Guardiola, such an influence on Messi’s career and development, as manager was a very big piece in the jigsaw to add to the Barcelona axis at City of chief executive Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain.

Guardiola said over the summer that he was at City because of his close friendship with Begiristain, confirmed by those who know him who suggest the understanding between the two – and with Soriano – always made the club a far more attractive destination than Manchester United or Chelsea.

Prising Messi away will be far, far more difficult. Despite being unsettled by being convicted of tax fraud over the summer and dramatically retiring from international football after Argentina were beaten in the final of the Copa America – a decision he has since reversed – Messi is understood to be happy.

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The club has ensured that and although its #WeAreAllLeoMessi social media campaign – launched after his court case - was excruciating it is the kind of pandering to a player’s ego that usually does the trick in making him feel wanted.

Added to that Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has indicated that Messi will sign a new deal at the club soon. His current contract expires in 2018 and Bartomeu has stated that Barca are preparing a “contract for life” for the 29-year-old which would suggest another five-year agreement.

That would take Messi up to 34 and effectively represent ‘golden handcuffs’ on his career. It is hard to see him going beyond that age given the demands upon him and his desire to see out his playing days at Barca.

The situation could change over the next five years – it is not so long ago that his relationship with coach Luis Enrique was tense - but it would be astronomically expensive to sign him. Still City will maintain the dialogue not least because Soriano is friends with Messi’s father and has known him for many years.

The fee for Messi is likely to be extremely highCredit:
REX FEATURES

City would – obviously – not be the only club who would try and sign Messi should the impossible become possible and they would face strong competition from the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, in particular, who could offer a less demanding domestic league than the Premier League. But if Messi was ever to come to England, City would expect to get him.

Therefore Guardiola’s influence should not be under-estimated. His role in Messi’s development, in helping turn him into a great player and probably the greatest of them all, is well-documented. He also recognized Messi’s single-mindedness and ruthless streak although there is a divergence as to what to believe.

According to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, in his book “I Am Zlatan”, Messi went to Guardiola to tell him he did not want to play “on the right wing any more, I want to play in the centre” as a way of levering the Swede out of Barcelona. “I was the striker. Guardiola didn’t give a damn about that, though. He changed the tactical formation. Guardiola had to listen to him,” Ibrahimovic wrote.

The account from the book “Pep Confidential”, an authorized insight into the way Guardiola works, has it differently with the coach having a light-bulb moment, before Ibrahimovic was even signed, when he realized in 2009 the best use of Messi was as a ‘false nine’ forward. Guardiola called up the then 21-year-old who – timidly – knocked on his office door late at night and underwent an intense video coaching session as to how to play the role.

The truth probably lies somewhere in between with Guardiola under some pressure from Messi but also realizing - as time would emphatically justify, with 14 trophies in four years and some extraordinary football – that he was better backing the wildly-talented younger man.

What was also revealing, in Ibrahimovic’s book, was the line that “Messi, Xavi and Iniesta always obeyed without protest. They were like schoolboys. I am not like that.” Iniesta and Messi will be in the team to greet Guardiola – another obedient Barca pupil - on Wednesday. It is a bond that is incredibly strong even if, despite that, it is unlikely to ever extend to Messi being enticed to join Guardiola at City. But if he ever decided to leave, they would head the queue.